Ventilating appliance



NOV. 14, 1933. v G" REA I 1,935,179

VENTILATING APPLIANCE Filed Aug. 25, 1930 iii/677107 677209 810 6.0/1-ea/ Patented Nov. 14,. 1933 UNITED, STATES VENTILATING APPLIANCEAndrew G. Orear, Glendale, Calif., assignor to 11 Electric VentilatingCompany, Chicago, Ill., a corporation of Louisiana Application August25, 1930. Serial No. 477,507

4 Claims.

This invention relates to a popular and well known type of ventilatingapparatus, which, briefly described, comprises an electric motor anddirect driven fan, a motor-supporting frame, and

5 a panel to which the frame is bolted or otherwise fastened, the panelhaving an opening to accommodate the fan and usually being mounted in anopening in a wall of the room served by the apparatus.

Notwithstanding the efforts of designers and manufacturers of suchapparatus to secure a good balance of the rotating parts (fan and motorarmature), these devices are frequently objectionably noisy in operationdue mainly to vibratory and oscillatory effects in the motor, fan,

supporting frame and panel set up by the rapidly rotating andoscillating parts. Efforts have heretofore been made to obviate thisobjection by means of a spring suspension of the fan motor on themotor-supporting frame, but, so far as I am aware, such efforts havebeen to but a small extent successful, owing I believe to the fact thatthe springs must be sufficiently heavy and stiff to maintain the motorand fan in true running position, and when so made, their vibration andnoise absorbing capacity is but slight.

One object of my present invention is to provide a cushioned spring orflexible mounting for ventilating apparatus of this type that will moreeflectively reduce or eliminate the vibration and noise whichaccompanies its operation, and I have found that this can beaccomplished by 10- eating the cushioning means in, and making the samea part of, the means by which the motor supporting frame is attached tothe panel, or directly to the wall of the room where the usual panel maybe omitted; and this is especially true where the cushioned attachingmeans takes substantially the form hereinafter described and shown inthe accompanying drawing.

Another object of the invention is to provide a simplified and improvedmeans for mounting the motor carrying frame on the panel or wall,whether the cushioning means be incorporated therein or not, whereby theframe can be applied and removed by the simple bringing together orseparation of interfltting parts on the frame and panel respectively,and without requiring the use of bolts, clamps or other like fasteningdevices.

In order that the invention may be clearly understood, I have, in theaccompanying. drawing, illustrated one simple and practical embodimentthereof, and referring thereto-- Fig. 11s a rear elevational view ofaventilating outfit of the-type referred to, showing the motor supportingring frame attached to the panel by my improved cushioned connectingmeans.

Fig. 2 is a perspective elevation of a fragment of the ring frame andthe right hand upper connecting device shown in Fig. 1 (the left hand 50connecting device being a duplicate thereof).

Fig. 3 is a similar perspective elevation of a fragment of the ringframe and the lower connecting device.

Fig. 4 shows a modification of the flexible sup- 55 port shown in Fig.3.

In the drawing, 10 designates a sheet metal panel such as is commonlysecured in a correspondingly shaped opening in a wall, this panel havinga circular opening 11 to accommodate the fan. The fan and motor unitcomprises an electric motor conventionally illustrated at 12, a directdriven fan 13 fast on the armature shaft of the motor, and a motorsupporting frame comprising, in the instance shown, an inner ringshapedsaddle 14 embracing the motor, a peripheral ring 15, spider arms orspokes 16 connecting the two rings at the top, and an arm or spoke 16'connecting the rings at the bottom, which may be hollow, as indicated,to serve also as a vent pipe 3 for air cooling the motor.

Describing now my improved cushion support for the motor supprtingframe, 1'7 designates each of a pair of upper socket members that areattached to the panel 10 as by bolts 18, and 19 35 designates a lowersimilar socket member attached to the panel 10 as by screw bolts 20.These socket members 17 and 19 are preferably located adjacent to theperiphery of the fan opening 11. of the motor supporting frame, as bybolts 21 are a pair of upper arms 22, and attached to the lower portionof the peripheral ring 15, as by bolts 23 is 2. depending arm 24.. Theupper arms 22 preferably take the form of suspension hooks, as clearlyshown in Fig. 2, the free ends thereof being widened, as shown at 2'2,and engaging within the socket members 1'7; and the lower arm 24, whichhas the character and function of a flexible strut member similarlyengages within the lower socket member 19. It will be seen that byreason of this construction, the motor, fan and motor-supporting framecan be applied to the panel by a simple lowering movement afterregistering the free ends of the arms 22 and 24 with their respectivesocket members, and it can be removed and withdrawn by a simple liftingmovement. 1

As shown in Figs. 2 and 3, the socket members 17 and 19 are preferablylined with one or more Attached to the peripheral ring 15 90 layers ofvibration absorbent material, such as soft rubber or felt, this materialbeing designated by 25. As a result of this, the vibrations of themotor-supporting frame set up by the rapid revolution of the fan and itsshaft are absorbed by the socket linings 25 and are not to anyappreciable extent transmitted to the panel 10. This, of course, greatlyreduces the noise and insures a smooth and quiet operation of the fan.At the same time, the described cushion connections of the motor frameto the panel prevent lateral or radial displacement of the fan motor andits supporting frame so that the fan is always maintained in truerunning position relatively to the panel opening.

In Fig. 4 I show a modification of the lower socket-engaging arm whereinsaid arm 24' has an S-form, rendering the same more flexible than thearm 24 of Figs. 1 and 3.

Where the motor supporting frame may be connected directly to the wallof a building. instead of to a panel set -in the wall, the wall ofcourse takes the place of the panel in relation to the ventilatingappliance, and the term panel as used herein is intended to include sucha wall. The drawing illustrates one simple, practical, specificembodiment of the principle of the invention, but I do not limit thelatter to the structural details shown, except to the extent clearlyindicated in the specific claims.

I claim:

l. The combination with a panel, a fan motor and fan, and a ring framein which said motor is mounted, of socket members on said panel and armson said frame engaged with and disengaged from said socket members bysimple lowering and lifting movements of said frame.

2. The combination with a panel, a fan motor and fan, and a ring framein which said motor is mounted, of socket. members on said panel, saidsocket members being lined with vibration absorbent material, and armson said frame at their free ends adapted to engage with said socketmembers.

3. The combination with a panel, a fan motor and fan, and a ring framein which said motor is mounted, of a pair of upper socket'members and alower socket member attached to said panel, a pair of arms functioningas suspension hooks attached to the upper portion of said frame the freeends of which are adapted to engage with said upper socket members, andan arm functioning as a strut attached to the lower portion of saidframe the lower end of which is adapted to engage with said lower socketmemher.

4. The combination with a panel, a fan motor and fan, and a ring'framein which said motor is mounted, of a pair of upper socket members and alower socket member attached to said panel, a pair of arms functioningas suspension hooks attached to the upper portion of said frame the freeends of which are adapted to engage with said upper socket members, andan arm functioning as a strut attached to the lower adapted to engagewith said lower socket memher; all of said socket members being linedwith vibration absorbent material.

105, portion of said frame the lower end of which is

